


On Moirallegiance

by bramblePatch



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alien Romance, Archived From Tumblr, Archived from Bramblepatch Blog, Meta Essay, Nonfiction, Other, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Troll Culture (Homestuck)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 13:59:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16834018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bramblePatch/pseuds/bramblePatch
Summary: A brief look at troll social dynamics and pale romance. Originally posted on Tumblr in October 2011.





	On Moirallegiance

I’m not sure we’re looking at moirallegiance in the right light. That is, I don’t think the ideal matchup is calm troll♦violent troll.

I think it’s self-destructive troll♦outwardly aggressive troll. All trolls are unstable. Some of them are just more likely to turn that instability into murderous rampages.

If we look at Karkat♦Gamzee, yes, we can see that in this case Gamzee is the potentially violent one - but Karkat is a bundle of self-loathing who has been known to deny himself sleep for days or even weeks at a time because he doesn’t trust anyone else to handle things. And Gamzee was clearly pale for Karkat a long time before he ran out of sopor - he repeatedly calls Karkat his “best friend” in his first appearance. He makes an effort to get Karkat to open up to him. He seems to be actively - as actively as stoned!Gamzee does anything - trying to keep Karkat content and stable, which is blatant pale flirting.

Looking at Feferi♦Eridan - Eridan has genocidal tendencies, which Feferi helps rein in. Feferi, on the other hand, seems to be cheerfully in denial about her entire situation, and Eridan helps with the symptoms but not the cause. True, she probably wouldn’t be able to feed her lusus on her own without severely, negatively impacting her own quality of life - and I kind of have to wonder if part of the reason that no other heiress has overthrown the Condesce is that they’ve all been worn to the bone and half-feral from a lifetime of keeping Gl'bgolyb fed. But I’m not at all sure that allowing her to completely delegate the task to her Flarping friends was the best choice, either, and she didn’t get much other emotional support from Eridan.

I’m not sure I have any coherent thoughts on Kanaya♦Vriska, except that outside of the “Kanaya was flushed” issue, I’m not sure they were clear on who needed what kind of pacifying. Vriska has a higher kill count but also a huge inferiority complex, while Kanaya is the sort of troll to calmly bisect a perceived romantic rival and convince everyone she did it for his own good.

And then we get to Nepeta♦Equius. This is where it seems to break down a little more - Equius is clearly being pacified, but Nepeta is cheerful and confident and competent, right? Except… he’s clearly got her on a short leash, so to speak. And I think that’s where we can understand that Nepeta, in Equius’s eyes if nowhere else, is a danger to herself.

As far as Equius sees it, Nepeta has no sense of self-preservation whatsoever. He comes across as stuffy and bigoted - and in a lot of ways he actually is - but it’s important to remember just how closely linked “nobility and beauty” and “violence and unpredictability” are in his worldview. Their entire culture, so far as Equius understands it, is aimed at appeasing the highbloods so they don’t flip out and kill everyone. When Equius says “inappropriate,” he means “dangerous.” Polite behavior is behavior that does not lead your betters to messily cull you. Noble beasts are physically powerful and aggressive.

And Nepeta just does not get it. She behaves in ways that he’s certain will lead the next higher-blooded troll she talks to to attack her. She fights dangerous creatures all but unarmed. She treats roleplaying as nothing more than a game, rather than the deadly combat training he knows it can develop into, and it’s all he can do to keep her from intentionally playing with the most vicious roleplayers he knows.

Now, I’m not saying that Nepeta is suicidal, or even that Equius believes her to be. But from his perspective, her every move ignores boundaries put in place for her own protection, and he has no idea how to protect her besides slapping up more boundaries and hoping she’ll listen because it comes from her moirail this time.


End file.
